For several years, military and law enforcement agencies have been researching and developing products that assist the individual firearm operator with gear carriage and operation. A significant emphasis has been placed on increasing an operator's load bearing abilities utilizing body armor, weapons carriage, and backpack mounting advancements. The end goal is to provide equipment that provides the user with enhanced functionality while reducing weight and effort required. For example, giving a user the ability to patrol with medium and heavy machine guns at a ready position is a force multiplier option that requires equipment to reduce the user's effort required to carry the heavy weapons.
Referring now to FIGS. 1-3, an example of prior art equipment that seeks to achieve somewhat similar objectives in the field of handheld camera operation is the Easyrig® 3 Cinema manufactured by EASYRIG AB of Umek Sweden. The Easyrig® 3 Cinema, generally designated by the reference numeral 10, is shown in use holding a camera 12 over the shoulder 14 of the wearer 16 in FIGS. 1-2, and with the camera at the level of the wearer's hips 18 in FIG. 3. The Easyrig® 3 Cinema seeks to transfer the load of the camera from the wearer's back 20 and shoulders to the hips to reduce fatigue and increase the steadiness of the camera.
The Easyrig® 3 Cinema includes a frame 22 that defines a frame axis 40 and is connected to a hip and back support 24 by upper and lower adjustment clamps 26, 28 with upper and lower adjustment knobs 30, 32. The location of the transfer of the weight of the handheld camera 12 to the wearer's hips is controlled by the side support struts 34, 36. A boom 38 extending upward and to the right of the frame has a downward facing exit aperture 42 for a cable 44. A camera hook 46 releasably connects a handheld camera to the cable. A shock absorber and pulley system (not shown) internal to the frame and boom holds the majority of the weight of the camera while also helping to steady the camera by creating moderate resistance to movement. The cable has a sufficient length to enable the camera to be moved as far as the user's arms 48 can reach, which enables shooting at both hip and shoulder level.
Although the Easyrig® 3 Cinema is suitable for its intended field of use in handheld camera operation, it has a number of disadvantages that make it unsuitable for use as a support structure for a weapons system. The boom's exit aperture for the cable is intended for use with an object with a center of mass located directly below the exit aperture. Since a handheld camera is held over the wearer's shoulder or against the wearer's hip, the boom's exit aperture functions as intended. However, the center of mass of a weapons system is located well forward of these positions and the wearer's torso when the weapons system is held at a ready position, especially in the standing position (see FIG. 4). As a result, the cable rubs on the boom at the exit aperture, which has the potential for causing cable failure with disastrous consequences if a dangerous high-powered weapons system is attached to the cable instead of a camera.
Other features of the boom make the boom unsuitable for use as a support structure for a weapons system. The boom is quite large and bulky and presents itself too much if pointed towards an enemy position. The boom is also enclosed, which makes it extremely difficult for the wearer to access the boom's internal components if maintenance or repair is required, making it unsuitable for repair in the field.
Additional characteristics of the Easyrig® 3 Cinema that make it unsuitable for use as a support structure for a weapons system include a handheld-camera specific camera hook attachment mechanism that does not adequately support a weapons system and cannot be quickly released if immediate separation of the object being supported by the Easyrig® 3 Cinema is required. The wearer must adjust the Easyrig® 3 Cinema utilizing the adjustment knobs and side support adjustments, and must use a custom rigid metal and plastic attachment system and back support to wear the Easyrig® 3 Cinema, which prevents the wearer from also wearing utility vests, body armor, and/or backpacks during use. Finally, the Easyrig® 3 Cinema utilizes a single shock absorber to hold the majority of the weight of the camera, which does not provide any redundancy in the event the shock absorber were to fail, and which instead creates sudden loss of support. This is a very dangerous outcome if a high-powered weapons system is attached to the cable instead of a camera.
Therefore, a need exists for a new and improved support structure for a weapons system that allows the user to operate a weapons system for much longer periods of time and with greater accuracy compared to an unsupported weapons system. In this regard, the various embodiments of the present invention substantially fulfill at least some of these needs. In this respect, the support structure for a weapons system according to the present invention substantially departs from the conventional concepts and designs of the prior art, and in doing so provides an apparatus primarily developed for the purpose of providing a device support structure for a weapons system that allows the user to operate a weapons system for much longer periods of time and with greater accuracy compared to an unsupported weapons system.